I may be cynical in accepting the idea that all politicians lie, and lie about substantive matters. It turns into calculus then.

How much is the politician lying?

Is the politician lying about things that are important to me?

To that end, I review Annenberg Political Fact Check (sponsored by a prominent Republican family's non-partisan non-profit foundation) and The St. Petersburg Times PolitFact (The St. Petersburg Times has a surprisingly good investigative reporting group; they broke the Robert Irvine Dinner Impossible fraudulent CV scandal--fluff, I know, but good work) services on a regular basis.

Candidates from both parties lie. Big surprise.

Republican candidates, though, lie more, keep repeating lies that have been debunked, lie about the character of their opponents and their own characters. If the Republican lies aren't coming in at least 3-for-1 compared to Democratic lies I'm surprised.